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Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at once. toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the Bibleignmenistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Exodus, the book of Exodus years ago, 1964, I met a man by the name of Dr. Mark Cameron. He was the Vice President of Florida Bible College. So he was a friend of Dr. Lindstrom and myself and every student it came. Just fell in love with Dr. Cameron. He was a jolly man. He loved the Lord. He studied the Scriptures. prayed scripture, you touched him and he’d go, Jesus. But he was just one awesome individual.

And he became the president of seaside mission, which was a Jewish ministry. And he would always be sharing in chapel and our classes because I had him for hermeneutics. And he said, what’s that? That’s just the art of biblical interpretation and also Bible doctrine. But the man, he knew his material, he knew it well. He loved prophecy and got to go to Israel with Dr. Stanford. But anyway, he would always be talking about the people who came to seaside mission and Jewish people would come in and they would invite others that didn’t know the Lord.

And they always talking about the Messiah. And he says, it’s amazing that he would be explaining the Passover because that’s something that they all knew, because they all did it. And they participated in it most of their life. And they would, you know, have the Seder, which is the symbolic meaning of the Passover, of the feast that they had. And he would tell about different ones and how that, right in the middle of it, sometime when he was talking about the matzo that was broken and the piece that was hidden and all he’d go through it.

And actually he’d know Dr. Mark Himmer. He would start crying because somebody that came would start crying and then have all the students all crying and it was just like it was contagious, you know. Because you try to picture the little meeting that he’s talking about and the table that that he said he had and he would go through it and he’d have on his little… Tamako? Yama Hawk? Jay, what did he call it? That’s what I said. Anyway, that little thing that you get, you know, a little…this…you know, bigger than an upside-down serial bow.

I mean, and they would put it under head. I’ve been there all these times and I’ve seen them. They were all running around with the thing. And Dr. Cameron…he wanted to do it. Jewish, but he looked Jewish and he loved the Jewish people and he would always talk and he would tell so many of us some of the stories and how he would go through. Now I wanted to share some of that with you because see we talk about resurrection Sunday.

It’s really, it has to do with Passover. And if you understand a little bit more about the Passover and I don’t understand everything. I’m still learning and growing but I know it’s a precious time. But I know that many of the people, and the Jewish people, even though they went through the ritual of it, didn’t understand the meaning of it. And sometime whenever they see that you’re talking about the Messiah, you’re talking about Christ. And it’s hard to get through it whenever somebody who really knows it and can point all that stuff out.

And Dr. Cameron would just go, he’d go, if you cut his suspenders, he would just go straight up. But he just loved the Lord, a great man. But in the book of Exodus, I want you to look there in chapter 12. In looking verse 12, for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt. Both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment.

I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are and when I see the blood I will pass over you. This is the Passover. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. So just picture for a moment. No, the table up here. There’s a big old table. You can use a communion table if you want to. But there’s things that are on this table, and it’s the symbolic representation or celebration that they would go through, and the passage of the people of Israel out of bondage and to freedom.

And so Dr. Mark Campbell would always tell us about the situation and of course almost everybody doesn’t hurt it a thousand times about how the Israel was in bondage in Egypt and about going through the Red Sea and all that. And so we hear the story we’ve heard it And sometimes you know, can you say anything that you haven’t already heard? And sometimes you can’t, but you just love to hear it one more time. It’s kind of like the gospel.

Just tell me one more time. And I don’t get tired of hearing the gospel and I don’t get tired of hearing about the Passover and that story of coming out of slavery into freedom. Because isn’t that really what’s happened to us? We were all enslaved. We didn’t have a chance. We couldn’t deliver ourselves, and the Lord performed a miracle, and He brought us forth into a new life. And that’s what happened to me 51 years ago when I trusted Christ as my Savior.

What a wonderful time. I want you to take your Bible very quick in the book of Luke, the book of Luke, and chapter 22. I was in this portion of scripture earlier this morning when we had our communion service. But in chapter 22, I just want to refer to just a couple verses here, verse 15 and verse 16, because he had told him he says, prepare the table, prepare for the Passover. So Jesus was going to celebrate the Passover.

And little did they know, he is the Passover. He was the Lamb. And here he was with his disciples, and so he says there in verse 13, his is made ready for the Passover. Then in verse 15, and he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not eat anymore. thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. In other words, this was a type of what was going to take place, and the fulfillment is yet in the future the total fulfillment.

Because it’s not just this resurrection from the dead. You see, there’s another part of the story that we’ll get to when we talk about the matza and it’s a wonderful story but I wish that sometimes I wish I could have been Jewish I wouldn’t have been Jewish I’d have a big one started David or Monday you know but I’m a glory I’m a Gentile but I love the story about what God has done and sometimes I wish that I could but you can’t change things it’s the way it is but I want you just kind of set the table for you and some of the things that they would have on the table because of what they were going to do and what each one symbolizes.

And so these five things that was on this table was there for a reason and they represented something. And one was the lamb which they were to remember the sacrificial lamb. whenever they were in Egypt, and there was going to be the death that night. Well, see, the firstborn was going to die. And so in order for the children of Israel, protection, then they were to slay a lamb and take the hyssop, a little branch and dip it in the blood and put it upon the, the lennel in the door post.

And therefore, when I see the blood, I’ll pass over this house. And so this lamb was to remind them of the sacrifice that was paid for the firstborn that night, not to die. So it’s a wonderful story and something they should be remembered. You see, they’re also, they had the hard boiled egg, which simply represented the symbolic of life. And so they did this and mainly whenever they went into the temple in Jerusalem, that became more prevalent. Then they had the bitter herbs.

The bitter herbs. If you ever had horseradish, you ever get a nice steak and have a horseradish? That goes perfect with a steak horseradish. Try horseradish all by itself, full strength. You talk about opening you up. You talk about a bitter taste in your mouth, but it was symbolic and it was for a reason. and to remind them of the bitterness of the slavery they had when they were in Egypt. Remember how they cried out to God for God to do something and God heard them and sent Moses down?

It was because God told Moses, he said, I’ve heard the cries of my people because the taskmasters were laying up on them And then they had to build bricks without straw and just made it so terrible for them. To be a slave, to have no hope, no way of delivering yourselves. And it was only by the mighty power of God that was done. But you see, they had to have the remembrance because see, as people, we forget things. We forget all the answers to prayer and we worry about the ones that’s coming up.

and we just don’t seem to remember. Do you remember how good God’s been to you? If he can save you and give you eternal life, don’t you think he can give you a hamburger from day to day? If he’s blessed you all these years and kept your life, don’t you think God could be worthy of your trust? Hasn’t he earned the right to be trusted to be believed? And then they had the spring vegetables and it wasn’t much, a little spring, maybe of partially something, something like a little potato.

But they were for a reason. Because in the spring, spring of life, new life. And so everything that they had, and everything that they did was for a reason. And so the table would be spread. And they had a little dish of salt water. And the little dish of salt water was for also a reason. And that was to remind them of the tears of their slavery. See, there was bitterness, and the bitterness brought tears. And so God wanted the people of Israel to always remember the way it was so they could always focus upon the one who delivered them from all of that.

Let’s just forget. There’s a whole song that talks about, lest we forget. And they did forget. They did not remember just how good and wonderful God had been to them. And then there was also three other things that they had, and they had the matzah. And they had three pieces. So you can pitch a three pieces of matzah. There was unleavened bread. And because of the haste of having to get out of Egypt and to leave quickly, they had no time for the bread to sit with the yeast and to rise.

So they had to just get the stuff and leave in a hurry. And it was unleavened, no yeast in it. And leaven is a type of sin. And so they had to do this. And so they had the bread. They had a cup for each person in order to drink of the fruit of the vine and then the candles. I want you to take your Bible and look here in the book of Exodus in chapter 10. all the way back in your Testament, Exodus and chapter 10.

Remember in the ninth judgment, the ninth judgment, they would also do some things because of remembering the plagues that had come. And they had to cite the plagues, the various plagues. And the plagues, as you you recall, you ought to know this because you watched the movie, 10 Commandments with Charleston, Heston. But if you didn’t see the movie, it’s in a book. It’s in the Bible. And there was the plague and a blood. There’s a thing turning the blood.

And there were several miracles before this and the Egyptians were able to copycat some of the miracles. They They did the okay on the first two. After that it was all down the hill farm. They couldn’t keep up with what the law, true and living God could do. Until the day the conclusion was the God of Moses, he is God. He is God. He is the Lord. And so God had to work all of these plagues upon the people, trying to get Pharaoh to change his mind.

So he sent the blood, changing all the what, the blood. and then came the frogs, frogs everywhere. A plague of frogs, don’t you like frogs, frog legs? But the frogs came, and then the lice, and then the flies, all these things that came, and then the disease upon the cattle, and then the boils, all over their bodies, Then the hail, then the locus, and then the blackness, and after the blackness, the death of the firstborn. So God brought all of these plagues upon the people.

I want you to look there in verse 21 of Exodus chapter 10, and the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days, and yod on the line is part of your Bible.

But all the children of Israel had light in their dwelling, dark everywhere in the world, but only with Israel, And in their dwellings was their light, and it was light for three days. They had three candles that they would put on the table that represented that though the world is dark, there’s light with the Lord. And though Egypt had no light, Israel had light. You know, there’s a message in there somewhere I bet there is. When you stop and think, he says, The world is in darkness.

We were born into the kingdom of darkness. But when you and I trusted Christ as our Savior, we were placed into the kingdom of light. Remember Jesus came into the world and says, I am the light of the world. He is the light of the world. I don’t have time to look at this verse, but in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 5 and verse 6 and 8, it talks about Christ is our Passover. Cast out the leaven.

Talking about you and I as individuals, remember that we’re supposed to live a clean, holy, pure life. And that we’re supposed to search and make sure that we kind of get these things taken care of and get them out of our lives. You see, one of the things that they would do is before the ceremony actually started this, of broom and sweep and make sure they got up all the crumbs of the bread, less there would be some yeast in it, so that there’d be no yeast because it’s the type of sin.

And whenever we come to celebrate our communion service, that’s why we’re asked to search our heart because we want the Lord to search us and then reveal to us any area in our life it needs to be corrected, that needs to be changed. And God will take care of those things for us. I want you to take your Bible, look in the book of John chapter 13. Look in John chapter 13. You’ll notice in the Gospel of John in chapter 13, something wonderful happened one night.

It was a Passover, by the way, that they were celebrating. And at this Passover, it says in verse 1 of chapter 13, in verse 1, not before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his arm was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, loved his own which were in the world. He loved them unto the end. Supper, be an end, did the devil have he now put into the heart of Judas’ chariot Simon’s son to betray him?

Verse 3, Jesus know, do you think he knew what Judas was going to do? And you’ll notice that The Bible talks about Judas was sent out that night. You see there in verse 31, therefore when he was gone out, Jesus said, now with the Son of Man glorified. Therefore, when he was gone out. Look in verse 30, he then having received the soft, went immediately out. And I wonder why it would just happen to say that. It was night.

You know, I could make a sermon out of that somewhere. It was night. See, as I talk and as I reflect upon some of these things, you’d be surprised, you might be able to think of something. You know, I bet that means this. You know, that could mean that. And when you gain knowledge of the Bible, you’d be surprised how certain things just kind of comes into your mind and God can speak and so forth to every individual. But see, this is what some of the Jewish people did.

Not everybody did exactly the same thing all the time. You got people a day, Jewish people a day that don’t even celebrate the Passover. They don’t do anything about it. And some things don’t mean the same thing. And you know, I really don’t know. I’m not Jewish. I’ve never been to one. I’d like to see it all done. But no one, Dr. Cameron, I just got enthralled just listening to him talk about it because he would relate and refer to so many of these things.

And you know, in the same chapter, when he’s talking about the Passover, he’s talking to his disciples and he gets down there and what does he do? He gets a basin with some water in it and starts to do something. What is he doing? He’s gonna wash their feet, washing their feet at the Passover. I bet there’s a message in there somewhere. Did you know that he’s Peter, you are not gonna wash my feet. Jesus said, I don’t wash your feet.

You have no part with me. Well, not just my feet, wash the whole body. He says, you that are washed, don’t need a total bath, just need to clean your feet. You see, once you trust Christ as Savior, you’ve already been washed. That’s why the snow. But as we go through life, we kind of get a little dirt on us here at times. And God says, you need to wash your feet. First John 1 9 is how we wash our feet.

God wants to stay clean. But you see, what they did in the Passover, there’s always a reason behind it, a story that’s there. So the Seder begins with the lighting of those candles, and then they would be the blowing of the shofar. Remember, they would come into Jerusalem on Passover. And I mean, everybody would be there. I mean, the place would be just back. And whenever they would blow the shofar, then the high priest knew this is when they would sacrifice the lambs.

I wonder if there was a shofar that sounded at night. I would love to have known. When I first came here, I remember the first services we had somebody had a big old show for a horn. Who had that? Wasn’t Barry and didn’t you bring that? Somebody had one and I remember I’m not sure if I blew it or not. I’m not sure. You can pass out just trying to make that thing sound. But anyway, I want you to know that there’s some things that happened at the celebration, the cedar, that if you listen closely, you can see Christ.

You can see Him and just about everything. Now they had the cup of sanctification and it was filled. And then there was a prayer that summed up the reason for the celebration and they would all drink. And then the youngest one, usually, would ask a couple of questions. Because this night was different from all other nights. What’s so different about this night? Because this night, why do we eat lamb? We can eat anything all the other… But why this night?

We do this. And then there was a question about why do we have to eat these bitter herbs? You can use the youngest one or a child would make the statement, ask the question. And why do we have to dip our food twice and why do we have to eat the lamb? Why do we eat matzah, the unbroken bread? What’s all this about? So they had the questions and then as they would do it, then they would answer and at different times they would have different songs or recite various prayers and so on.

I just cut to a lot of stuff and just get to the thing that really interests me. And then there’s the part taken of the spring vegetables. Which represents the new life. And they would take the little sprig of parsley and they would dip it into that little bowl of salt water. Very, very salty. Very yucky. As far as I’m concerned. And then they would eat it along with maybe a hard boiled egg and some other stuff. But it was a coming out of the tears because of the bitterness that they had to go through.

The lessons that they had to learn, knowing that only God could do this for them. And Lord walked them through all these things and helped them to see. Then there is the breaking of the middle matzah. There was three of them, three pieces of unleavened bread. Now, you may wonder why was there three? I think there’s a story there someplace. You know, it could be representative to me in my mind. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. You know, we call it the Trinity, the Triune God.

We’re talking about a Trinity. Our Lord is one God. the second one is the Son of God. And the second one is the one that’s taken from the middle and it’s broken. And the smaller piece, you really put back down on the table, but then that other one, the larger one, they would wrap it up and then they’d hide it. And the matzah also had to have something done to it to make sure that it doesn’t rise and there’s no yeast in it, you know.

And so they would stripe it and then they would pierce it so that whenever they baked it, it’d be flat as a flitter. But it represented something. Now why would you take the matzah, no leaven, stripe it, pierce it, and it’s the second one, break I bet there’s a story here. You probably can’t even come close to figuring it out. Who that might represent. I remember someone who said, I am the bread of life. Anybody remember that? Do you believe that there’s a possibility that the one that was broke could be a picture of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, that he was broken and wrapped in a napkin and hid.

The story ain’t over though. Not yet. It ain’t over. So I believe it is more than just meets the eye. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones.

This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Mailing. The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you, and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4011 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.